Image : At Deepwater Horizon, Basic Research Was Applied

In 1977, scientists diving in Alvin on a basic research mission unexpectedly found seafloor hydrothermal vents that sustained chemosynthetic organisms. the discovery rearranged our concepts of where and how life could exist on Earth and elsewhere in the universe. The technology developed to study vents proved useful for research on the deep-sea oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. (Courtesy of WHOI Archives)